#12 - The Rensselaerville Letters

For this first post of 2021, I am starting a short series about the other projects I am intermittently working on besides the Ryves Holt House. As I give each project a post, I will also add a Page to the blog where you can follow along as the research progresses. 

First up is a family project - 19th century letters between members of the Nile Family in Rensselaerville, NY. These dozen or so letters belong to my father’s half-sister’s family. Several years ago my aunt sent me digitized versions of the letters; this was right after I finished graduate school and sort of broken from historical work. However, the letters helped to reignite my passion for research and uncovering stories from the past. Unfortunately, my aunt passed away in 2020, but my cousins have deemed me the ‘family historian’ and I will carry on. My aunt and her children come from an old New York family. Well, not too old, but family lore says that one ancestor travelled to New Netherlands with Peter Minuit, he of New Amsterdam fame. The English side of the family can be traced at least as far back to Robert and Deborah Cook; we have their Marriage License and Family Record from 1785. 

The letters, of course, are a few generations down, covering the 1840s through to the 1860s. They feature conversations between a group of Nile siblings and their cousins. They are connected to the Civil War, the Gold Rush, the Anti-Rent Wars, the California Supreme Court, and oddly enough Nebraska. Which is funny, I used to live in Nebraska and became a Cornhusker! 

As you may have gathered, dear reader, I am once again working on a project outside my formal areas of expertise. When I started on these letters, I had worked in museums with 19th century artifacts, but that was about as close as I could get to 19th century family drama. However, as I started to read and transcribe, I started to notice how much was common between siblings two hundred years ago and now. I also discovered so many small comments that tied to much greater historical narratives. One sibling complains about mysticism, another complains about her sister taking a dress she shouldn’t have, and yet another describes parts of very early San Francisco. Here is a small sample to whet your appetite:

There are many stories I would love to share with you, and I will over time. Be patient. Better yet, there are supposed to be many more letters at the Historical Society in Rensselaerville and perhaps a few dozen more hiding in a cousin’s basement. Hopefully as we move beyond the pandemic I will have the opportunity to visit my family and RVille to discover more of these letters. I am planning down the road to share the letters and explain why they are important; in the meantime, check your own basements and attics, maybe you have some amazing old letters hiding in the dark!